The Gourmet society rip off.........

suzihayes

The same happened to me. The £39.95 was taken out on 5th January 2015. When I contacted them they said that they would not refund me and that I had been sent 2 emails informing me that the payment would be taken - but I definitely did not receive these. I am guessing this is how they make their money. Surely they cannot be allowed to continue in this manner. Come on Martin - expose them.

ehadz

Hi guys,

I work in the IT industry. Same thing happened to me and they have stolen money from my account too.

I checked my spam emails and found their two emails about renewal. Then I investigated further to see why they were spammed as all the other Gourmet Society emails come through fine. The reason for that is that they have sent the renewal emails through via another service hosted in amazon ses.

I can tell you right now this is a deliberate setup, so that those emails go in to spam. Because all my other gourmet society emails come through their normal website email (domain).

I will be complaining to Trading Standards, Watchdog, Gourmet Society twitter feed, and will follow this thread carefully.

Good luck guys, let's expose these crooks! :mad:

cfc.fan

I received the card in the mail on Saturday and was surprised by it and when I checked my bank statement, they had charged me for it. I looked at the initial email they sent me when I signed up and at the very bottom of the email, where no one looks (even after the terms and conditions link) there is an "important note" in a small font saying that the membership will be automatically renewed unless canceled, and they will send a renewal reminder to confirm the cost of renewal.

The card I got in the mail was attached to a letter which says: "as promised in the email sent to you on 23/12/2014, your new membership card is attached below and ready to use." I did not recall getting any email like that and searched my inbox for emails from them and I couldn't find an email regarding this. I had a look at my spam folder and there it was. This was the only email from them in the spam folder and considering I have gotten over 50 emails from them (since signing up) regarding random stuff and only this one ends up in spam is no coincidence. I am no IT expert but I am sure they do this on purpose so it automatically gets marked as spam and no one reads it.

I gave them a call and they told me that I had to cancel before it got renewed and they can't do anything about it except cancel the next renewal. Legally, they might be entitled to charge for this, but ethically, they are wrong. And I'm pretty sure this is how they end up making a lot of money. I am planning on complaining about them to trading standards and watchdog as well, and if enough people complain, I hope it will stop them tricking other people in the future.

omaryanoo

Same thing happened to me. Automatic renewal and i only knew when they took the money from my account.

They refused to refund and they said that i've accepted automatic renewal.

I've checked and found their 2 emails in the gmail SPAM folder. All their other emails arrived in inbox except for these two emails! which is suspicious and the reason is that they send this deliberately via another amazon email.

If they were confident with their service and their real value they would not have done that but they know that members will cancel if they are being reminded.

TrickyDicky101

Didn't any of you think to diarise the expiration/auto renewal for the following year? I do this with all my annual subs (eg insurance etc) so I am never reliant on receiving the notice from the provider concerned.

Surely that's common sense?

omaryanoo

No I didn't take note of the date. I don't even remember that i saw anything about the automatic renewal when i signed in but anyway that was a year ago.

They annoying this is that i have been receiving all these offers (and still receiving it) to get a membership for £29 including other gifts and now they charge me £39 for membership only! So that makes me feel more that it is a rip off

timbo58

They probably changed the wording on the site after the ICAC regulations came into force in June 2014.

Although the OFT may have suggestions/best practice mentioned in their literature/website it doesn't necessarily mean this is law -it may be just their opinion of 'best practice'.

ehadz

I have contacted citizens advice and they have told me that;

On 01/10/2014 amendments were made to the Consumer Protection Regulations. These regulations now state that if a consumer is subject to an aggressive or misleading practice by a retailer, manufacturer or importer of a product they could have the right to ‘unwind’ the contract for a refund. To unwind a contract the consumer would need to make the trader they paid aware of any misleading or aggressive practice within 90 days which starts from the date of purchase, taking receipt of any goods or when any service had begun.

I sent them a letter in recorded post giving them 14 days to refund or to file a case in court. Let's see what happens.

wealdroam

ehadz wrote: »

On 01/10/2014 amendments were made to the Consumer Protection Regulations. These regulations now state that if a consumer is subject to an aggressive or misleading practice by a retailer, manufacturer or importer of a product they could have the right to ‘unwind’ the contract for a refund.

Weren't those amendments were made after your contract was agreed?

Does the legislation cover agreements made prior to Oct 2014?

ehadz wrote: »

To unwind a contract the consumer would need to make the trader they paid aware of any misleading or aggressive practice within 90 days which starts from the date of purchase, taking receipt of any goods or when any service had begun.

That ninety day period ended over nine months ago.

timbo58

^^ as above really.
I would have thought you'd have to prove it was misleading etc however anyway.